


Shades

by takethembystorm



Series: Tea Break [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 13:26:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8104141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takethembystorm/pseuds/takethembystorm
Summary: WARNING: Major character death.Adrien grieves poorly.  Marinette pays a visit.Ladynoir.





	

“You need to stop,” Plagg tells Adrien.

“I know,” Adrien replies. “Claws out.” 

With a whoosh and a silent thunderclap of power, Adrien vanishes, replaced by the superhero Chat Noir. Above him, the great bells of Notre Dame toll out the hour.

 _Bong. Bong. Bong._

Adrien raises his hand to his bell and rings it thrice in a distant echo of Notre Dame, breathing out a name as the last ring dies away.

With the slightest breath of wind, a shade appears before him, essentially colorless where there should be raven-black hair, only the slightest hint of red where there ought to be her trademark carmine bodysuit. The lines of her form are traced out in mist and reflected light as she settles onto the ledge next to Chat. 

“Ladybug,” he says. She smiles gently at him as he proffers up a cup filled with something viscous and red.

“This isn’t good for you,” she whispers once she’s drunk. 

“And yet somehow I manage,” he says, placing the empty cup between them.

“You don’t,” she whispers, drifting closer. She rests her insubstantial head on his shoulder, drawing a shiver from him as ghost-flesh meets real-flesh, drawing the heat from it.

“I’m coping,” he insists. 

“True,” she says, “but not healing.”

They sit, still, for long minutes, before he manages an answer. 

“I miss you, Mari,” he says. His voice cracks only a little.

“I know,” she replies. Her hand strokes over the palm of his right, numbing the flesh there as well. “Still bleeding?” 

“It’s fine,” he says, gently clasping his fingers around hers. “I’ll pay that price.”

She sighs and draws her fingers from his grasp. “You can’t,” she murmurs. “Not forever.” 

“But for now,” he says.

“For now,” she agrees, after a pause. 

Marinette’s shade evaporates as soon as the first rays of the sun touch it. Adrien sits and waits a while longer, until dawn is well underway.

Then he returns to his house, and his cold, unslept-in bed, to wait for the next night.


End file.
